Valentine studied music and singing at Guildhall School of Music in London and was awarded the King George VI Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and subsequently appeared in almost 100 of Britain’s best loved TV series, including two episodes of Dr Who, Minder, The Saint, The Professionals, The Sweeney, Emmerdale, Dixon of Dock Green, Crossroads and The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
He also played leading roles in numerous West End musicals including: Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella with Tommy Steele, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Dora Bryan, The King and I with Peter Wyngarde and Oliver with Helen Shapiro.
He also wrote, produced, and directed his feature film Fanny Hill which was a commercial success. As a result, he later worked in Hollywood as a script editor and later, in the UK, as a screenwriting coach.
In addition to the performing arts, Valentine also worked in the field of business and communication coaching as head of production for the company, Motivation Video, for 10 years with big-name clients like IBM and BP, and he set up his own company, The Academy of Communication, which he ran for 20 years.
Valentine was also an established writer and was commissioned to write the screenplay for The Singer as a vehicle for Cliff Richard. He was also commissioned to write the book for the West End musical, Zelda, about the wife of Scott Fitzgerald. In 2012, he was commissioned to write a biography of his great uncle, Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, the only senior officer to survive the sinking of the Titanic. Titanic and The Strange Case of Great Uncle Bertie was published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the tragedy. A firm believer in the 'Titanic Switch Theory' (that it was actually Titanic's identical sister ship, Olympic, that sank that fateful night and not the Titanic as part of an elaborate insurance fraud scam), Valentine went on to write several books and deliver lectures on the subject of the great ship and the mystery surrounding its loss.
His final project was working as producer/writer for the documentary The Session Man, about the life and career of legendary rock pianist, Nicky Hopkins, currently in production.
